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4.18 AVERAGE
4.18 AVERAGE
adventurous
informative
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
3.25- Being a huge fan of historical fiction I always get excited when a book of that genre takes place outside of WW2. Because of that. And having just finished The Aviator’s Wife, I was really looking forward to reading this one.
In 1927, Olivia West is a rarity at the air field in San Diego since she is the only female pilot amongst all the men. Becoming of her growing up on her father’s fishing boat, she also processes a keen sense of the weather and is a stellar navigator. When she hears that James Dole is hosting an air race from Oakland, CA to Maui with prizes for first and second places, she jumps to enter. The only problem is as a woman she isn’t allowed to pilot a plane in the race and none of the male pilots will even consider her, except for her ex-boyfriend with whom she refuses to fly. When Felix Harding hears she’s a navigator, he invites her to fly with him and while she has her doubts, she agrees. In 1988 on the island of Oahu, Wren Summers’ life is not going as planned. She’s lost her boyfriend, her apartment, and her job all at once and she’s not sure where she’s meant to start picking up the pieces. When she gets a phone call that an obscure relative of her father’s on Hawai’i (The Big Island) has left her land and a barn, she figures that’s a good place to start. Never having known her father or any of his relatives, Wren is clueless as to why she’s been left this and what it all means, but she moves herself to The Big Island just the same. She’s intrigued when she finds two very old planes in the barn and goes on a mission to find out who this relative is and why the planes were left to her.
While I enjoyed parts of this book, I wasn’t as wowed as I was hoping to be. I loved the parts of Olivia and Felix flying over the Pacific. Sara Ackerman’s writing had my heart in my mouth and kept me at the edge of my seat. Unfortunately, the rest of it was just meh. I didn’t really care for Wren’s storyline until the end and I felt like it wasn’t needed at all. This book could have been told solely in Olivia’s timeline.
I love how it was based on the real event of The Dole Derby. I had never heard of this before even though this was the event that led to flights to Hawaii becoming a thing. I went down the Google rabbit hole learning about this race and the entrants and it truly is fascinating. I greatly appreciated that while Felix, Olivia, and their plane are fictional, they represent real people who took part in the race.
While I wasn’t 100% happy with this I am glad I read it. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advanced copy of this. The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West hit the shelves on February 6th.
In 1927, Olivia West is a rarity at the air field in San Diego since she is the only female pilot amongst all the men. Becoming of her growing up on her father’s fishing boat, she also processes a keen sense of the weather and is a stellar navigator. When she hears that James Dole is hosting an air race from Oakland, CA to Maui with prizes for first and second places, she jumps to enter. The only problem is as a woman she isn’t allowed to pilot a plane in the race and none of the male pilots will even consider her, except for her ex-boyfriend with whom she refuses to fly. When Felix Harding hears she’s a navigator, he invites her to fly with him and while she has her doubts, she agrees. In 1988 on the island of Oahu, Wren Summers’ life is not going as planned. She’s lost her boyfriend, her apartment, and her job all at once and she’s not sure where she’s meant to start picking up the pieces. When she gets a phone call that an obscure relative of her father’s on Hawai’i (The Big Island) has left her land and a barn, she figures that’s a good place to start. Never having known her father or any of his relatives, Wren is clueless as to why she’s been left this and what it all means, but she moves herself to The Big Island just the same. She’s intrigued when she finds two very old planes in the barn and goes on a mission to find out who this relative is and why the planes were left to her.
While I enjoyed parts of this book, I wasn’t as wowed as I was hoping to be. I loved the parts of Olivia and Felix flying over the Pacific. Sara Ackerman’s writing had my heart in my mouth and kept me at the edge of my seat. Unfortunately, the rest of it was just meh. I didn’t really care for Wren’s storyline until the end and I felt like it wasn’t needed at all. This book could have been told solely in Olivia’s timeline.
I love how it was based on the real event of The Dole Derby. I had never heard of this before even though this was the event that led to flights to Hawaii becoming a thing. I went down the Google rabbit hole learning about this race and the entrants and it truly is fascinating. I greatly appreciated that while Felix, Olivia, and their plane are fictional, they represent real people who took part in the race.
While I wasn’t 100% happy with this I am glad I read it. Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for an advanced copy of this. The Uncharted Flight of Olivia West hit the shelves on February 6th.
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Solid Dual Timeline Tale Featuring Unique And Unexplored Moment In History. This particular tale was inspired by and set within a real world event in the early days of human flight, back in the years before intercontinental air travel had become trivial and long before the era of GPS. A time when doing something as routine - in 2024 - as flying from SFO (San Francisco, California) to HNL (Honolulu, Hawaii) was so fraught with danger that not everyone made it, for a variety of reasons. A time when women had only recently won the right to vote in the United States and were still searching for any modicum of equality in the work force. A time when Hawaii itself was still a US territory governed by the US military more as a forward operating base than as an actual place to live. Within this world, we find a female who will do whatever it takes to become a pilot, and not just any pilot - the *best* pilot anywhere near her, in the capacities she can fly in at all. Here we get much of the excitement and wonder of the book.
Decades later, in the other timeline, her exploits have long been forgotten - indeed, her own contributions were never actually known, thus forming the core mystery of the book. Stumbling into the mystery we get another much more modern woman, currently quite down on her luck. Taking a last ditch *now routine* flight from California to Hawaii, she discovers a land she had forgotten and a particular piece of it she had never known - and within that piece, the mystery begins. Will this modern woman find her peace? Did the earlier woman ever find hers? What has happened to the earlier woman? What will happen to the newer woman?
All this and so much more... in this pulse pounding emotional rollercoaster of a tale.
Very much recommended.
Decades later, in the other timeline, her exploits have long been forgotten - indeed, her own contributions were never actually known, thus forming the core mystery of the book. Stumbling into the mystery we get another much more modern woman, currently quite down on her luck. Taking a last ditch *now routine* flight from California to Hawaii, she discovers a land she had forgotten and a particular piece of it she had never known - and within that piece, the mystery begins. Will this modern woman find her peace? Did the earlier woman ever find hers? What has happened to the earlier woman? What will happen to the newer woman?
All this and so much more... in this pulse pounding emotional rollercoaster of a tale.
Very much recommended.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
This dual timeline historical novel set in the 1920's (Olivia) and 1980's (Wren) was fascinating for completely different reasons. Although the flight from California to Hawaii during the Dole Air Race competition portrayed intense drama, and was filled with aeronautical information and challenges of the times, I most enjoyed the story when it flipped to Wren's moments and artistic creations. Her inheritance of property in Hawaii and the mystery of her unknown family kept me interested in what she would discover next. Even though I sensed the big reveal before it happened, I enjoyed every moment that led Wren to uncovering all the mysteries of her own history, spiders and all.
I’ll never turn down a book that tells the unknown story of a strong female figure in history! While Olivia West is not a real person, her character is modeled after the many early female aviators whose stories were never told. There are two timelines in this book and I appreciated how both women were brave in their own ways. Add this to your TBR!
I love how this historical fiction story manages to combine reality - the dole race actually existed - with fiction - the lovely female protagonist of this story is sadly a fiction. I really liked learning about some of the pioneer times in aviation and about Hawaii, through the lenses of Olivia in 1927 and a little bit through Wren in 1987 as she uncovers the story several years later.
adventurous
mysterious
sad
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
slow-paced
Finished reading: January 19th 2024
"Funny how dreams were dreams, and then one day, if you were lucky - or persistent enough, they became reality."
*** A copy of this book was kindly provided to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. Thank you! ***
I fell in love with Sara Ackerman's writing back in 2022 when I read The Codebreaker's Secret, and I've been meaning to read more of her work ever since. I admit this took longer than expected, but as soon as I first spotted The Uncharted Flight Of Olivia West I knew that I was going to read this story first. It's no secret that I have a weak spot for WWII fiction, but there was just something about the blurb of this dual timeline story partly set in the 1920s that had me fully intrigued. And it turned out to be a more than solid piece of historical fiction indeed!
One of the things that I loved about Sara Ackerman's books is the Hawaiian setting, and it shows that the author has intimate knowledge of the islands. The descriptions were both thorough and vivid, and really made Hawaii come alive for me... And I do love a dose of armchair travel while I'm reading! I could also really appreciate the historical details incorporated into the plot, and while Olivia West herself was a fictional character, the race itself really did take place. This gave the story an air of authenticity and really took the plot to the next level for me.
The Uncharted Flight Of Olivia West uses a dual timeline structure, where we switch between 1920-1927 with Olivia West's POV and 1987 with Wren's POV. Dual timelines can be tricky for me, because I tend to much prefer one timeline over the other... In this case, I did have a preference for Olivia's POV both because of the race and the fact that she was a female pilot fighting against prejudices and a male dominated industry. It took me a lot longer to properly warm up to Wren's POV, although things did improve drastically as soon as she settled in on the Big Island. Olivia's POV was more historical and adventure with only a small dose of romance, while Wren's POV was more romance and self discovery... I guess your reaction to the two POVs depends on what type of story you prefer.
I do have to say that I was surprised by the pace itself, which was a lot slower than expected especially with Olivia's POV. There was a lot of building up and not that much flying; I guess I expected a faster pace for a more adventure focused timeline. The pace in Wren's POV was also quite slow, although I guess that part of this feeling had to do with the fact that it took me a while to warm up to that timeline in the first place. Things did improve over time, and the final part was without doubt a lot more engaging. I especially loved learning more about Olivia and her journey, and the little mystery and romance in Wren's POV were a nice touch and brought everything together. I also loved the incorporation of Hawaiian words into the plot.
If you enjoy well written and more character driven dual timeline historical fiction, The Uncharted Flight Of Olivia West is a great option. While the pace might be a bit on the slow side, there is also plenty of adventure along the way to make up for it and the Hawaiian setting is a bonus.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Dementia, Grief, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail